Commuter rail prompts SRTA to rethink its regional bus service

With an eye toward the long-anticipated commuter rail link from Boston to New Bedford, local transportation stakeholders are crafting a plan for improving the regional bus service.

Dan McDonald

NEW BEDFORD — With an eye toward the long-anticipated commuter rail link from Boston to New Bedford, local transportation stakeholders are crafting a plan for improving one of the city's existing and underused means of transportation: regional bus service.

Jean Fox, who sits on the board of the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority and is also working on a committee charged with developing a transit plan for the region, outlined a raft of potential improvements Tuesday during a meeting with The Standard-Times' editorial board — many of which she believes should be implemented regardless of when, or if, commuter rail service arrives in the Whaling City.

"It's time to reassess public transit in the region," said Fox, a Freetown selectman.

Chief among the bus service's shortcomings, when compared with similar transit systems in the country, are rates that are too high and schedules that don't meet the needs of potential riders.

The cost for a monthly pass, which is $55, she said, "is entirely too much for a young person or someone on a fixed income, (which is) the lion's share of the ridership."

The subcommittee Fox serves on was organized by Kristina Egan, the state's South Coast Rail project manager, Fox said. Its work comes in the context of the proposed commuter rail link to the city, which could terminate in the Whale's Tooth parking lot adjacent to Route 18.

The lot could also become the future home of SRTA's bus terminal, currently located downtown, making it an intermodal hub in the city.

But there are still many questions associated with the rail project, which, if funding can be secured, is still years from completion. New Bedford Assistant City Planner Jill Maclean, who serves on the transit subcommittee with Fox, said "we will not be waiting" for the Whale's Tooth intermodal station to recommend changes to the local bus service.

Fox said such recommendations should be included in SRTA's regional transit plan, which has yet to be finalized. The plan would have to go through a public vetting process and then be voted on and approved by the 10-member SRTA board, which includes community leaders from Swansea to Mattapoisett.

That process will take months, said Fox.

On Tuesday, Fox listed areas SRTA could improve.

Compared with similar transit systems in the country, Fox said SRTA fares are high.

Fox said there is no half-month pass for SRTA. Eliminating transfer fees that are assessed if a rider has to travel through different "zones" should also be considered, Fox said.

At the same meeting, Maclean broached the idea of a Charlie Card-type of service that would allow bus riders to place money on a card that would pay for their fare.

A consultant is modeling different bus routes that would eliminate redundancies in the current routes, Fox said.

"It's all in the mix," she said.

Maclean agrees with Fox that marketing of existing SRTA policies and programs should improve.

Many students do not know about the student reduced rates, Maclean said. Many parents do not know the ages at which their children can ride for free.

"Marketing, we all agree, is something that is significantly missing," Maclean said.

The area SRTA covers includes 182,000 people, Fox said. She was unsure of total daily ridership numbers, but did say that Route 1, which stops at Fort Taber and is one of the busier routes, handles 717 boardings daily. She could not detail the size of the SRTA budget.

A UMass Dartmouth survey of New Bedford residents published this year indicates that only a fraction of city residents regularly ride the bus.

Of 441 city residents surveyed via phone, only 12 percent said they used the bus system as their primary mode of transportation, said Colleen Dawicki, a research associate with UMass Dartmouth's Urban Initiative. Dawicki, like Fox and Maclean, serves on the subcommittee that is assessing the public transit needs of the area.

Some of those who do not regularly use the bus perceived there to be public safety problems associated with the public transit system, Dawicki said.

Those who did not ride the bus had an annual income that typically exceeded $35,000, had higher educational attainment and had access to vehicles, Dawicki said.

The Urban Initiative also surveyed about 700 riders of the bus system, Dawicki said. An overwhelming number of those bus riders surveyed said they would use the bus more if it ran on Sundays or if it ran deeper into the night.

Hours of operation for the authority, which has 63 fixed routes, run from 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to its website.

"It was nothing that surprised us," Dawicki said of the survey's results.